1554. Jolie Blon's Bounce by James Lee Burke

Jolie Blon’s Bounce is James Lee Burke’s 12^th novel, this one being part of the Dave Robicheaux series. The title is a reference to a song which Burke explains is sometimes thought of as the Creole national anthem. Robicheaux is a police detective in rural southern Louisiana, and he’ a sober alcoholic who has yet to successfully deal with his own inner demeans. This book is coarse, highly sexual, misogynistic, depictive of ugly racism, brutal, and widely abusive, sexually, verbally, and physically.  It’s Burke’s beautiful use of language that so well captures the dark side of life that he writes about. His descriptions of the countryside of southern Louisiana is wonderful, and he uses those same skills in his character development of such highly troubled humans. I listened to this in audiobook format and the book was enriched by the variety of Louisiana accents that were read by Will Patton. Also, an original version of the title song was used to close Burke’s own opening comments. Despite the dark material, this book gets my very favorable recommendation.